Yggdrasil Fallen, LitRPG Series
Book 1, Part 2: Obsidian
Chapter 35: Interface
Jeff stirred against the hot earthen floor of the room he’d found himself fighting for his life in. The charred legs and tail of his former adversary lay nearby, obscured by several opaque boxes that seemed to just hang in the air, centralized in his field of vision. The voices that had screamed into his head as the collar fell away had fallen quiet, though he could still hear them murmuring; much like a crowded auditorium before the start of a play’s second act. Jeff rolled onto his back, then forced himself into a seated position. Rubbing his eyes, he attempted to focus on one of the windows hanging in his sight.
“These look like… interface windows from that stupid video game Andre kept trying to get me to play with him... what was it called? Shoot, I don’t remember, some kind of MMO.” Jeff mumbled to himself.
“Now I know I’ve completely lost it, there’s no way this is real, gotta be one hell of a hallucination from some mold growing on those falls. Explains why I don’t remember how I got here, and all the crazy shit going on!” Jeff laughed to himself as he reached his hand out to one of the windows suspended in midair. it passed right through it, like it was made of mist… or light.
“Ha ha ha, I knew it. Just some crazy hallucination!” Jeff continued laughing to himself as he climbed to his feet. Only, the windows continued following his line of sight as he stood and moved around. While they were opaque enough to just be able to see through, they obscured his vision enough to be an annoyance. He began swatting his hand through the air, as though he were trying to chase away an annoying fly, his hand passing through the windows. He drew a deep breath, grumbled in frustration at his current predicament, although it was a minor annoyance compared to the impromptu battle he’d just barely lived through. Jeff stared straight ahead at the window predominantly centered in his vision. Focusing entirely on it, he reached out again, this time it expanded, zooming to the forefront of his vision, the once obscured text clearing up.
“It’s a… battle log?” Jeff mumbled, as he scrolled through the text printed written within the window. It was a line-by-line recounting of the battle he’d just had with something called a “Salamen”. Reading the combat log Jeff shuddered realizing just how close, in several instances, he’d come to death against the creature.
“Hahahaha, that’s great! I did blast that bastard into oblivion with a fireball! Guess the fucker was of a species “Salamen” and that wasn’t its name. Interesting.” Jeff exclaimed upon reaching the point in the combat log that described the deciding blow between them.
“If only that was something I could do again.” He bemoaned to himself, a deep sadness flowing through him as he read the described aftershock of what was described as “Blaze damage overtime” Sadly, that was the end of the log, a bright red button at the bottom of the window lit up: “Close Log”. Jeff hesitantly reached out to touch the button. Upon making contact, the window vanished in a puff of smokey mist leaving Jeff a bit stunned.
“What the hell?” He asked himself, turning his attention to the remaining three windows. Reaching out he touched the next most dominant window:
“Welcome to the Ascended’s Logistics Interface and Aspected System guide. Or ALIAS for short. This compact system has been personally engineered to help guide you through the troubles of being a newly born Ascended, all but guaranteeing your full ascension. While the system is currently limited to the Aetheric energy aspects you have unsealed, you currently have access to: Inventory, Quest System, Looting, Survival Guide. If you have any questions regarding the system, just connect your Aetheric self and access the system help! Good luck to you in your journey towards full ascension! May Yggdrasil fuel your future!” The text and layout of this window was different, almost celebratory and jovial.
Jeff stood, almost completely paralyzed, too many questions flooding his mind to possibly be answered.
“What the hell is going on here?” Jeff whispered to himself, in response, another window filled with more seriously written text popped up in front of the one he was currently viewing:
“Query: What the hell is going on here! Your world has been absolutely shattered by the reality of what can only be described as Magic! Unfortunately for you this is the reality of the worlds! You have been chosen by the world in which you exist (amongst the uncountable many that exist in all the cosmos) to stand and fight against an unknown enemy to defend the singular world in which all you know and love exist! Congratulations! To help you adapt, learn and grow stronger in this newly realized existence the ALIAS system has been awakened in your being. This hyper adaptive system conforms itself to your concept of reality in an attempt to provide you with your greatest chance at not only survival, but success in a mission you probably didn’t want! You are currently an “Unaspected Being” meaning the available resources through this incarnation of ALIAS is very limited. Unseal Aspect Runes to further expand the capabilities of your ALIAS system.”
Jeff took a sharp breath in as he read through the text in the window, struggling to grasp its implications. He reread the text another three times before he closed his eyes and rubbed his temples with the index fingers on both hands.
“Aspect, being, ascended whositwhatsits? What is this garbage?!” Jeff slapped his hand at the window, only to bemusedly see it fly around his field of vision like a piece of paper in a strong breeze.
“Ok, so lets assume this is all real and I’m not completely losing my mind. How am I supposed to deal with random windows popping up while I’m surrounded by people? What happens if one pops up on me while I’m driving?!?”
“Query: System mechanisms and control: This adaptive system will continue to update itself as it learns from how you use it. While this system is tied to your consciousness and cognition it can also be controlled with physical motions. Simple cognitive commands can be used to open and navigate the various menu options you currently have access to. Additionally, any display panels you are currently accessing can be closed in the same manner.”
“Very cool!” Jeff mumbled to himself, testing out his ability to open and close windows through his new interface. When he opened his “Inventory” a very video game-esque matrixed window popped up, significantly larger than any other window he’d opened thus far. He counted a total of 50 slots, in the grid, five rows of ten slots. Across the bottom the gridlines he counted a total of eight boxes, each with a zero listed within it and a circle of different colors to the left-hand side. From what he could tell, the entirety of his inventory was completely empty.
“That’s alright, I’m sure well fill it up nice and neat with plenty of treasure before too long!” He thought to himself, turning his attention to the remaining two windows, having closed not only the inventory, but each of the query windows and the welcome message. The next window had text that really caught his attention:
“Quest: Slay the Salamen and escape your bindings: You have found yourself tethered in sealing chain, primed to be fed to the Salamens’s hatchlings, if you wish to survive, slay the creature and escape the bindings! Status: Complete. Reward: Temporary Dimensional Shift, New Passive Skill, New Ability.” Jeff read through the message, wondering exactly what it meant by the rewards listed.
“Skills? Ability? Weird enough… but add that “Temporary Dimensional shift” I really don’t know…” Jeff thought to his eyes, focused on the “Accept Rewards” button that was lit up red in a separate column within the window, just to the right of the listed quest and rewards. Jeff mentally acquiesced. With a flash the room around him began to flash and pixelate, like a glitching computer monitor connected to an overheating graphics card. Jeff staggered back several steps as the deeply rooted grooves in the ground began to writhe and twist, like a several snakes converging. They began to move, circling one another until the grooves formed a perfect circle with several runes cut into the ground. From the center a faint reddish glow began to emanate, growing brighter and changing from red to orange, to yellow and finally to a brilliant blue-white. The air was filled with a sickeningly thick aroma of sulfur and brimstone as the circle began to sink, forming a concave depression in the floor.
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“What in the actual fuck is going on here?!” Jeff stuttered as he staggered further away, his back pressing into the gray stone of the wall behind him. From the bottom of the formation rose a ball of red hot light that crackled with blue-white energy and seemed to drip molten rock. It flashed in a contained mini explosion, blinding him. When his vision finally cleared standing before him in the bottom of the pit was one of the most staggeringly beautiful women he’d ever seen. Thick, vibrantly red hair flowed from her head, over her shoulders and hung loosely near her waistline. Traced across her skin were thin lines of the same pulsing blue-white light that had been arcing over the surface of the molten orb. They seemed to faintly pulse against her skin, illuminating what he recognized as runes from an ancient language he’d seen scribed in fantasy books in high school. His eyes traced her lithe form, admiring the sheer white dress that hung loosely over her form. It wasn’t until his eyes met hers that he let out a light gasp.
“Dafuks wrong with your eyes lady?!” He choked out, unable to break his gaze from her glowing ember eyes. Instead of an iris, or sclera they were a pair of almond shaped holes that seemed to have been filled with the remains of a once roaring bonfire.
“Well hello to you as well Jeff. That was a rather rude way to greet a vastly powerful being such as myself. Do you want me to turn you to a smoking pile of ash or would you care to start over?” She answered with a surprisingly smooth, yet dangerously aggressive voice.
“Uh… sorry… its been a weird day, and your randomly showing up here with those crazy eyes, and legendary tattoos has only added to the what the fuckness.” Jeff coolly replied. Much to his surprise, she started laughing, a shockingly harsh barking noise:
“And it just gets weirder.” Jeff grumbled. It was several moments before her raucous, barking laughter subsided and when she finally calmed herself, she began speaking:
“It’s no wonder that you’re his friend. Really are two sides of the same coin. I am Cinteras, one of the nine sisters of Yggdrasil and guardian of the aspect of Blaze. I have been allowed to pass to this subsection of your realm in part to the strong saturation of the energies I guide, and in part to how your exposure to it has already begun your ascension. This should make it far easier for me to mark you and release your first seal. Is it a fair assumption, using terms you’d be familiar with, that you have absolutely no fucking clue what the actual fuck is going on?” She asked. Jeff stared at her like she was a three headed snake with gerbil legs and Jason Momoa faces. She sighed:
“Jeff, like your dear friend Andre, this world has chosen you as one of its champions: an Ascended. While it’s not a unique situation, it is highly unusual for a world to allow the succession of two such individuals and it would seem your direct proximity to Andre has influenced your soul to undergo a similar change. I wish to attempt to grant you my mark, which means, if successful you will be able to transmute latent Blaze energies into powerful abilities and gifts. To do this, I merely need your permission.” Jeff shook his head in utter disbelief.
“Fuck, that had to have been some epic green to trigger a trip like this. Sure, why the fuck not. Gimme your mark and let’s get this shit on a roll.” He answered. Cinteras cocked her head to the side, gazing thoughtfully at him, before shaking her head.
“Please remove your shirt or expose your chest to me.” She finally spoke, her voice so soft it was almost a whisper. Jeff complied, not just lifting his shirt up but taking it off completely.
“Alright babe, I’m ready for what ever “blazing” hot action ya got for me… but lets keep it above the belt, I have this girl I’m mad for and I don’t wanna do anything to jeopardize that.” He answered. Shaking her head, Cinteras slashed her right hand across her left palm in a series of sweeping motions as she hovered up and out of the small hole her appearance created, and over to where Jeff stood. What appeared to be molten magma dripped from her glowing hand, splattering on the ground in hissing sizzles.
“Brace yourself. The first time is always quite rough.” She spoke, even more softly than before. Jeff nodded:
“Just get it over with, I’m probably dead or having one hell of a good time either way.” Jeff said. She reached out her hand and placed it against his bare chest, where his skin immediately began to sizzle and smoke, burning through skin and muscle until her hand rested against the bones of his rib cage. He screamed in shocked agony as the molten fluid from her hand spread out, etching smoking black runes into the exposed bones. She slowly began to withdraw her hand, the flesh beneath knitting itself back together as acrid black globules dripped off her hand and onto the floor below. Jeff fell to his knees, continuing his agonized screams as multiple opaque boxes began to pop up in his view.
*Alert: a change to the core matrix of your being has been initialized. Please wait while the changes are processed and implemented. *
*Alert: Blaze Acclimation has been initialized, calculating the individuals’ potential and restructuring physical and aspect capabilities. *
*Alert: Core matrix change has allowed the evolution of your ALIAS system to gain sapience, the change will not occur without users’ permission. Accept? *
In the haze of his hellacious pain Jeff instinctually closed the first two windows and accepted the third:
*Alert: ALIAS system undergoing significant changes, please allow suitable time for the upgrade process to proceed.*
“Alert: Blaze Acclimation has completed and has been correlated to your “Intelligence” statistic. You have gained the following abilities and gifts. *
*Blaze Ability: “Flame Shot” has been acquired: fire a ball of concentrated blaze energy at enemies within your line of sight, cost of ability is directly related to your skill level, intelligence, and understanding of the ability.
*Blaze Ability: “Magma Cloak” has been acquired: Shroud yourself in densely concentrated Blaze energies, increasing “Defenses” by 30% and increasing damage of all “Blaze” aspect abilities by an additional 25%. *
“Blaze Gift: “Phoenix Fire” has been acquired: All blaze abilities have the potential to be used as healing abilities, with equal cost and effectiveness. *
*Unaspected Gift: “Aspect Conversion” Has been acquired: all spells and abilities draw from a singular mana pool, as opposed to having independent pools per aspect.”
“Unaspected Gift: “Overflowing Wells” has been acquired: While having a singular mana pool, each unsealed aspect vastly expands that mana pools storage potential and increases the rate at which it regenerates.”
*Blaze Gift: “Blaze Aspect Growth” has been acquired: Through use of Blaze Aspect Abilities, or channeling Blaze energy, you have a chance to learn new abilities, or accelerate the growth of your Blaze Aspect Rune. *
“Thank you for your patience in this initial awakening process, while the coalescence of your ALIAS’ sapience may take some time, we highly suggest you explore and test your newly acquired abilities.”
Jeff knelt on the ground, his chest still feeling as though a fire elemental decided to use him as its own personal satisfaction device, gasping for breath as Cinteras placed her hand on his head.
“You will require a moderate amount of time to recover from this initial process. Your dear friend Andre was lucky enough to have it occur in a relatively safe environment, though his was…. Quite a bit different. For the meantime I will conceal your presence, and the enemy you have slain from any other creatures that may be lurking nearby. At least until you have recovered enough strength to be able to defend yourself. Jeff, I truly believe you could be exactly what this world needs, should it have any hope at survival.” She spoke
“What the fuck do you mean “hope at survival”. Is there something wrong with this world? Also, where the fuck is Andre? He’s been missing for quite some time now.” Jeff gasped out.
“Sadly, I do not have the strength or time to answer your first question, maybe that is something you could talk to your friend about. As per the second question, I really do not know how to answer that question, as the answer in and of itself is far more complicated than I could ever hope to fully explain at this moment.” She answered softly.
“I’m pretty sure I heard the bastard speak to me when I first landed here, does that mean he’s ok? Is he an… uh… what did you call it… Ascended too?” Jeff wheezed.
“I’m not sure who spoke to you when you first arrived, as even I and my sisters could not hear his call, so… I don’t know… but I can say that should he still exist, he is indeed an ascended as well, a very unique one at that.” She answered.
“Fuck lady, it seems to me that you have no fucking clue what’s going on. Why don’t you fuck off and let me recover. You’re just dragging me down with your uselessness.” He growled. She gazed down at him, sadness in her eyes before waving her hand creating a shimmering gray dome over his curled form and in a swirl of misty smoke, she vanished.
“Bout fucking time”. Jeff growled as he lay, curled up on the rather cool floor of the now dim chamber.